Volume 3 Issue 34

Industrial Market Wide Open in SE Asia

Southeast Asia should see healthy demand growth for both industrial and automotive lubricants in coming years, according to a recent report by Ipsos Business Consulting. The industrial market is less competitive, but product distribution is key for all parts of the market, the firm concluded.

Chinese JV Blends for Distributors

Acorn Oil and Linxian Petrochemical opened a joint venture lubricant blending plant in Tianjin, China, last month. The facility focuses on providing toll blending services mainly for lube distributors that wish to market their own brands of automotive and industrial lubes.

BRB Joint Venture Opens in Singapore

BRB International announced the opening of its Singapore joint venture, a partnership with Ban Guan Chemical that makes viscosity index improvers.

Profits Jump at Balmer Lawrie

Indias diversified, state-run enterprise Balmer Lawrie & Co. reported that operating profit from its greases and lubricants segment rose 12 percent year on year in its first quarter.

Briefly Noted

Japanese integrated oil company Idemitsu Kosans first quarter 2016 total sales volume for lubricants jumped by 3.7 percent from the year before to around 249,000 tons. PetroChina, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) and Indias Apar Industries were among the worlds top five transformer oil suppliers along with Ergon and Nynas, according to global advisory firm Technavio Research. JX Nippon Oil and Energy of Japan signed two companies to distribute its Eneos-branded lubricants in Myanmar: Myanma Golden Stars MGS Lubricant in the south of the country and Rainbow Bridge Distribution in the north.

Editor's Note

Beginning this week, news articles in Lube Report Asia will include live links for companies listed in the Lubricants Industry Directory, LubesnGreases list of suppliers in the global lubes industry. LubesnGreases offers both free and paid listings in the directory. For information about listing a company, contact Web & Data Products Managing Editor Michele Persaud at mpersaud@LubesnGreases.com